Tom, Jon and I went Steelhead fishing on the Wallowa Monday afternoon.  It turned out to be a beautiful day.  We were fishing in T-shirts for a while.  Unheard of in January.  The day was a little less than successful on the catching front but I guess it is still January.  We only caught a few Rainbow Trout.

We found the water to be a little off color due to Rock Creek flowing in totally brown with run off from Smith Mountain.  This caused there to be about 18 inches of visibility.  The water levels were just slightly above what we would expect and were holding around 42degrees.  This warmer water temperature should have Steelhead on the move up river from the Grande Ronde and Wallowa confluence.  We will keep you posted on Wallowa River Steelhead fishing conditions as we gather more data.  I expect we will be back down there later this week to gather more info.  The fishing typically begins to pick up in mid February.  We caught our first Steelhead on February 6th last year.  Our next mission will likely be hiking down into the roadless canyon below Minam State Park.

Current Steelhead fishing report just in for the Wallowa River.  Anonymous sources have reported the fishing to be good on the Wallowa early this week.  We were surprised to hear that the river was not blown out after the huge bump of water the prior weekend.  The Grande Ronde gauge jacked up to over 5,000cfs on January 20th and was just getting back down to about 2,000cfs on Tuesday when these guys were fishing. Looks like they hit it just right as the river bumped back up to over 4,000cfs on Wednesday. 

These bumps of water are apparently getting the Steelhead moving as each angler reported catching 1 Steelhead each along with a few Rainbows and a Bull Trout.  The Winding Waters crew is mobilizing on Monday for our first test of the waters on the Wallowa for 2012.  I will let you know what we find down there.

Stay tuned for more Wallowa River Spring Steelhead action. We hope to see you on "The River".  Contact us today to book your trip.

We had some great news the other day.  The WURA train board has hired a 3rd party to come in and manage the railroad operations on the short line between Elgin and Joseph, Oregon.  The new managers have said that they are very interested in getting the Steelhead Fishing Train going again.

The Steelhead Train was just getting a head of steam 2 years ago when the WURA board decided they were unable to offer this service any more.   Many of you remember the incredible fishing that we experienced on the Wallowa River that year.  I remember many double digit days of steelhead fishing down there that season.  There is a glimmer of hope for a few exploratory Steelhead train trips this spring with the intention being to have the Wallowa River Steelhead Train in full swing for the 2013 Wallowa River Steelhead Fishing Season.  I will keep you posted on the status of the train as it reveals itself to me.

Please Contact Winding Waters to let us know if you are interested in getting back on the Steelhead train.  The more people I can say are interested the better chance we will have of getting the Steelhead Train back on track.  You can also join us on Facebook to stay tuned to what is going on.

Happy Steelhead fishing to all.

Major spike in Wallowa and Grande Ronde River flows this past week.  We saw the river jump from 1000cfs all the way up to over 5,000cfs in less than 24 hours.  The flows are now coming back down towards 1,000.  If the weather remains cold and lets this new snow hang around for a little while we should be good.
This big spike in flows should have caused the Steelhead to move up into the Wallowa in bigger numbers.  Check out the USGS Stream Gage to see the Spike for yourself.